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Voodoo Detective - Traditionally animated 2D adventure w/ Peter McConnell doing the OST.
The original voodoo line comes from the song “You Do Something to Me” written by Cole Porter for the 1931 Broadway musical Fifty Million Frenchmen. 
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
Not old enough to remember the original source material. 
Not that you are either. You just have a better trivia rolodex to consult. I thought I did quite well in finding this.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Life has thrown a few days of crazy overtime at me unexpectedly, so I was only able to catch up this morning. I’m currently at the *new location* away from the island, and I performed a very first spell in the book (just to give orientation where I’m at to you, Karlok, without spoiling stuff), and I’m a bit stuck - I need a fuse for the life boat engine, and I have a bottle of rum that I’m not sure what I need for exactly. Pirate lady is locked up and the hex has been performed. I’ll come back to it later and see if I can come up with something, at this point I’m not asking for help yet, just kinda decided to stop after I hit a mini snag.
I agree with you on writing Karlok - it’s a bit all over the place, like it’s trying to be comedy and hard-boiled fiction and can’t quite pick a lane to stick to. It’s especially obvious when it comes to VD talking to “Mary Fontule” (and yes, that first scene was quite jarring), but I’m now starting to think that VD simply doesn’t know how to handle having the hots for someone. I also like Mary with all her spunk. However, few bad puns and many old-school expressions make the writing quite decent in the end, not amazing, but decent. Bad puns make everything better.
I think “the fire” in the beginning was simply a game’s way to say - we have voodoo and we will be breaking 4th wall here - to the player. Sort of setting of expectations…
The puzzles have been relatively easy so far, mostly lots of talking and some inventory manipulations that with the help of the book seem logical. I like what I’m seeing for now. It didn’t have any seious challenge as of yet, but I don’t think every game needs to be super-challenging, some of them can be just entertaining.
The music is wonderful, I really dig the cemetery soundtrack and the start menu. Harmonica piece was awesome!
At this point, I’m still very much enjoying myself playing this game. I don’t think it will be “the most epic game of 2022”, but it’s beautiful, sounds marvelous, and the story is still intriguing enough for me not to be sure how it will resolve, although I have a few suspicions already.
Will be posting more tomorrow!
EDIT: Double-click works with my mouse but not wit my laptop pad. Not sure what’s the reason, but I officially withdraw my QoL complaint, as it’s definitely a “me” thing. Double-click works!
Ended up being busy but I started playing this yesterday and I’m liking it so far. There’s a clever mix of dry humor with absurdist sight-gags and I really liked how deadpan Voodoo Detective is.
I’m not that far into the game (at least I don’t think so), I basically just finished questioning the butler and got everything I needed for the first spell. I might just waste time idling in the town square because the theme for it is awesome lol.
Life has thrown a few days of crazy overtime at me unexpectedly, so I was only able to catch up this morning. I’m currently at the *new location* away from the island, and I performed a very first spell in the book (just to give orientation where I’m at to you, Karlok, without spoiling stuff), and I’m a bit stuck - I need a fuse for the life boat engine, and I have a bottle of rum that I’m not sure what I need for exactly. Pirate lady is locked up and the hex has been performed. I’ll come back to it later and see if I can come up with something, at this point I’m not asking for help yet, just kinda decided to stop after I hit a mini snag.
What you need is probably obvious, but how to get it is just weird. Must be one of the dumbest puzzles i’ve seen in a few years. 
Message #43
Yeah, it was one of the 2 things I mentioned getting stuck on in my mini-review.
The other, earlier in the game, was the safe code. I knew it was the birthday Sept 9th, 1909. But I entered 991909 instead of 090909.
I am at the new location and stuck again. Since the last time I posted the story became more interesting and I was enjoying the game. But, and for me this is a fairly big BUT, some things could not possibly have happened. For instance, when Kiki gave me her hotel key I wanted to search her room and went upstairs right away. To my surprise she was already in her room. That’s not possible, I left her in the restaurant. Same thing happened when the barman told me he’d had a talk with the butler, who I’d left only a few seconds ago. Too much disbelief to be suspended. I call that lazy design. Shouldn’t be hard to avoid.
Something else that comes across as lazy design: the landlady called the mansion to let me know a letter had been delivered to my office. Oh come on! How does she know I’m at the mansion? There must be dozens of more plausible ways to get me to read a letter.
Question (about the first location): I went to the lawyer with the photographs to blackmail him, didn’t even think twice about it. It worked. It wasn’t until afterwards that I remembered I was supposed to show them to Kiki. So this “puzzle” can be solved in 2 ways? Which is good. It’s just that I can’t go back to a saved file to see the other option. That’s one important reason why every single adventure game should have the option to save manually.
I hope to finish tomorrow and post my final thoughts. For now, I still like playing the game in spite of its obvious flaws.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
What you need is probably obvious, but how to get it is just weird. Must be one of the dumbest puzzles I’ve seen in a few years.
You know, maybe not the dumbest (because after listening CAREFULLY to what VD was saying out loud, I figured it out, so “technically” there’s some logic involved), but definitely one of the most WTF puzzles I’ve come across in a while. Quite gross to boot 
I’m finished with the section that contained hilariously dramatic, Disney-esque villainous showdown (evil laughter included) which was cartoonishly entertaining, and now moved on to what I think is the last section of the game. I have also finally met a character who is an outright douche, it’s always nice to rag on those.
The puzzles are still generally easy. There was also a very colorful “true voodoo” section that presented no challenge but was really cool stylistically. And I came back from it to a very changed island where things are… let’s just say, different. I’m looking forward to finishing strong. I don’t expect anything difficult at this point, but I’m expecting a cinematic finale.
P.S. I absolutely LOVE the voice of Mr. Crumsford - every time he talks, it transports me straight to my childhood watching aforementioned Disney cartoons. Just marvelous!
Question (about the first location): I went to the lawyer with the photographs to blackmail him, didn’t even think twice about it. It worked. It wasn’t until afterwards that I remembered I was supposed to show them to Kiki. So this “puzzle” can be solved in 2 ways? Which is good. It’s just that I can’t go back to a saved file to see the other option. That’s one important reason why every single adventure game should have the option to save manually.
Yes! I chose the other option. What followed was very weird but funny short scene with Kiki. Just in case, spoilers: When you bring her the photos, you find her in a hotel room with a young stud in his underwear, playing puppet theater scene (yes, you read that right!) about cheating spouses for him, doing voices and all. She leaves the office of her husband unlocked for you to rifle through.. Was there anything funny with the other option?
I also liked that this is definitely not the kind of cheating I was expecting.
Question (about the first location): I went to the lawyer with the photographs to blackmail him, didn’t even think twice about it. It worked. It wasn’t until afterwards that I remembered I was supposed to show them to Kiki. So this “puzzle” can be solved in 2 ways? Which is good. It’s just that I can’t go back to a saved file to see the other option. That’s one important reason why every single adventure game should have the option to save manually.
Yes! I chose the other option. What followed was very weird but funny short scene with Kiki. Just in case, spoilers: When you bring her the photos, you find her in a hotel room with a young stud in his underwear, playing puppet theater scene (yes, you read that right!) about cheating spouses for him, doing voices and all.
Not really. He just caved in to the blackmailer.
I also liked that this is definitely not the kind of cheating I was expecting.
Yeah. That was quite funny 
Message #43
Finishing the game took me longer than I thought and I got fed up with it near the end. To be fair, that happens a lot when I’m playing classic 3rd-person adventures with dialogues and inventory puzzles. So maybe it’s just me.
I don’t have much to add to my previous comments. Most puzzles were too easy to be interesting and some were too much to stomach looking at you, fake fuse!. With a few nice exceptions. Story and writing so-so. Why did poor Mary have to die? Makes no sense story-wise. I suspect lazy design again. She keeps telling us: “If you need my help just scream” but she’d served her purpose as the client to get the story started, so the dev killed her off.
My final verdict: Nothing wrong with the presentation, easy on the eyes, great voice acting, good soundtrack. (I’m very pleased we got to hear more of that harmonica music.) But the game content is very uneven. I’m not so sure I’d play a sequel.
I also liked that this is definitely not the kind of cheating I was expecting.
I agree with fiksdal, that was quite funny. Too bad the game doesn’t have more of those moments.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
I have finished the game now as well. It hasn’t really gotten any more challenging towards the end, I’d say the whole factory sequence was so fast, I wasn’t even sure I was solving a puzzle. The few things available to interact with in any locations were exactly the things needed for a solution, no extra frills here.
The showdown was there but it ended not the way I’d ever imagined, and I suppose it worked, or at least it definitely gets points for originality. Karlok, The part with Mary being shot was slightly surprising, but I was 100% expecting to bring her back in the end, since I do do voodoo. Which I did. And ended the game with the cheesiest line of dialogues I came cross in a while. It was so cheesy that I actually liked it I suspect that this move was to weave the entire voodoo theme stronger into the game and set up that ending version. Or, your take on things can be totally right, of course.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Voodoo Detective despite its obvious flaws. In short:
Story/plot: starts off very intriguing then heads into some mix of cartoon villains/Maltese Falcon territory. Things could have been tighten up quite a lot, and picking a general direction would have been better, but it has originality going for it. I definitely want more voodoo in adventures. And I always want more noir.
Writing: a case of mild identity crisis - the game isn’t quite sure whether to commit to classic comedy, hard-boiled fiction or meta humor in certain parts, but the overall flow is still smooth, so it holds up.
Puzzles: Easy. Largely logical within the world of the game but not challenging. Some had fun moments to them or a nice throwback to the noir films of the past. One was extra gross.
Visuals: Beautiful. Some locations have very few interactive spots or smaller details, thus feeling somewhat empty, but it is a very pretty picture nonetheless. And there is plethora of unique animations, which is an effort I can always appreciate - makes the game universe more wholesome
Sound: Fantastic. 10 out of 10. Phenomenal voice-work and amazing soundtrack. Peter McConnell is one talented fella, and I think that everything that has a name of Jared Emerson-Johnson attached to it always turns out great.
Essentially, Voodoo Detective is an adventure that didn’t quite hit its full potential. The game has mixed too many things at once in its style, and it didn’t really handle it well enough to be a truly great game to recommend everyone outright and yet…I was entertained, had some fun moments and listened to some seriously talented voice actors, so I’ve got no regrets.
Thanks for playing along with me Karlok (I don’t know if you still playing, PlanetX - would love to hear your thoughts) and for everyone who contributed to this thread (please, continue). It was fun!
The showdown was there but it ended not the way I’d ever imagined, and I suppose it worked, or at least it definitely gets points for originality. Karlok, The part with Mary being shot was slightly surprising, but I was 100% expecting to bring her back in the end, since I do do voodoo. Which I did. And ended the game with the cheesiest line of dialogues I came cross in a while. It was so cheesy that I actually liked it
What?!? You brought Mary back to life? Wow, I never had the option to do that! At the very end I asked Papa L. about her and his indifferent reply was: well she died on the ship, you know that. So those few moments where you have to choose do have consequences later in the game. I take back my lazy design in this particular case. I still think it’s a flaw. I can’t go back and get your ending unless I replay the entire game, which I’m not going to do. And I wouldn’t know what the better choice is anyway. I’ll try youtube.
EDIT: So I watched the endings of 3 playthroughs on youtube. The first 2 were identical to mine. The third one had your ending. It wasn’t the previous choices, I could have saved Mary too if only I had looked at the object Papa L. gave me. Stupid Karlok! (And 2 equally stupid youtubers.) So that’s why my Voodoo Detective paused at the door before leaving the office and said “I feel like I may be forgetting something.” LOL
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
Karlok
Yes, I supposed your guy did forget “something”
I find it interesting, though, that the game didn’t even hint at the prospect of the different endings. I wouldn’t have known that other people may never see there was a better outcome, if I didn’t read your last surprised response. I examined the item right away because I was eagerly anticipating to bring Mary back, especially when he said something along “ticket for one soul” lines. So I got that ending and, of course, from that perspective - I saw that I also had an option to just walk out. From your point - not so much. It is apparently possible to finish this game and be very discontent with the ending without ever knowing there was something else to it. Design flaw or design choice? If it’s the latter, they may be doing a disservice to themselves.
The only time I saw there was a way to do things differently is with the Kiki or her husband choice that we ended up taking different routes for. But it was that one time, and it didn’t make me think about the endings in the slightest. Now I’m wondering if I missed other branching paths?
But the main complaint here is, like you said, no manual saving. Seriously should go the way of dodo, unless it’s some survival game.
Karlok
Yes, I supposed your guy did forget “something”
I am a bit ashamed of myself for not examining the object. I should have known better. I was in a hurry to finish the game. shifty:
I find it interesting, though, that the game didn’t even hint at the prospect of the different endings.
Come to think of it, the game didn’t hint at the possibility of blackmail as a solution to the key puzzle either. I’m going to restart the game and choose a different option at the very beginning, maybe the dialogue will change.
But the main complaint here is, like you said, no manual saving. Seriously should go the way of dodo, unless it’s some survival game.
YES!
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
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